So why are the states and cities doing it? The Chinese companies offered the lowest bids. For example, “the state of California rejected federal funding for a major portion of the Bay Bridge in order to go with a Chinese company that offered the lowest bid. The move cost Americans almost 3,000 jobs — jobs that cost the struggling California economy millions of dollars in wages, taxes and potential consumer spending.” according to ABC News. A spokesman for bidding U.S. firms said that, “had they been given enough time, they could have put together a successful bid. They added that Chinese firms have the advantage of being state-subsidized.” And, Its not just China. Brazil and India and several other countries are also benefiting by being given contracts for Federal projects; The Administration awarded a $355 million U.S. Air Force light attack aircraft contract in December, 2011, to Embraer, an aircraft company in Brazil.

It is a well known fact that Chinese steel is inferior to American steel - one of the reasons why the Chinese can flood the market with cheap (and inferior) steel. I'd be afraid to drive across any bridge made with that crap, at least not without a life preserver and a car that floats.

China’s $3.2 trillion in foreign reserves toward U.S. municipal investments and private infrastructure work wouldn’t imperil America’s ability to borrow, but it would reduce the China’s stockpile of Treasuries and similar investments. Right now, China holds over $1 trillion in Treasury and other U.S. government debtAnother interesting rub is that China believes that helping America’s economy function better — that is, move goods around faster and provide a jolt to the labor market with construction jobs — is in its own national interest. As China looks to reduce its heavy reliance on exports, it needs Americans to start providing goods and services to rebalance the trade relationship. In this interconnected global economy, a rising tide does truly lift all boats (just as Europe’s ebbing tide threatens to sink them all).

Just look around , and you’ll see the need for such an investment. Crumbling roads, aging airports, creaking railroads, poor public transportation and a power grid that isn’t equipped for 21st century energy technologies.

But worse than all that is the state of affairs in Congress, where do-nothing legislators and partisan hacks continue to abdicate their responsibility to protect the nation’s interest.

The saddest part of all isn’t that the infrastructure is second rate. It’s that unless China helps rebuild America, it may take years for the U.S. government to get off its keyster and do the work itself.

Across the United States, Chinese workers are rebuilding America, according to the Times, "In New York City alone, Chinese companies have won contracts to help renovate the subway system, refurbish the Alexander Hamilton Bridge over the Harlem River and build a new Metro-North train platform near Yankee Stadium."THE CHINESEWHO BUILT AMERICA:

Reginald D Hunter is an American comedian working in Britain. At the end of a long radio interview he was asked, "Is Capitalism finished?" (Probably to raise a cheap laugh, who knows?) to which he replied,

"It's getting that way. It's like when a relationship is nearly over, and one person just wants out, while the other's still trying to make it work."